Shawn Marion scored plenty of points for the Toronto Raptors on Friday, but it was the generous nature of his teammates that the forward found more impressive.

Toronto Raptors forward Shawn Marion tries to shoot between Oklahoma City Thunder defenders Kevin Durant, left, and Chucky Atkins during the first half of their NBA basketball game in Toronto, March 27, 2009.

Published on Fri Mar 27 2009

TORONTO – Shawn Marion scored plenty of points for the Toronto Raptors on Friday, but it was the generous nature of his teammates that the forward found more impressive.

Marion scored 14 of his 20 points in the third quarter as the Raptors won their third game in a row, 112-96 over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Marion, who was an impressive 7-for-8 shooting in the third, finished the game with 20 points and 11 rebounds. But after the game he preferred to talk about the guys distributing the ball rather than dunking it.

"We we're moving the ball, when everybody is getting off the ball and making quick-decision passes, it makes the game that much easier," Marion said of the Raptors' 36-assist effort.

Chris Bosh also recorded a double-double, with 21 points, 13 rebounds and six assists for the Raptors, who matched their longest winning streak of the season.

The Raptors got off to a quick start thanks to some aggressive defence. The Thunder turned the ball over five times in the first quarter, leading to 12 points by the Raptors.

"We knew we wanted to come out and play aggressive on defence," Bosh said. "We tried to protect the paint and give them one contested shot. When we did that, we got out and ran and everyone was touching the ball. It was fun basketball."

Toronto (27-45) entered the third quarter with a 51-40 lead, and they quickly extended it as Marion dunked off a long feed from Bosh and Andrea Bargnani nailed a three-pointer.

The Raptors were up by 21 points at the 6:48 mark. The Thunder managed to get as close as 14 points but Marion reeled off six points in the final three minutes of the quarter, including a running slam dunk, to restore the Raptors' lead to 19 at the end of the third.

The Raptors, who were 8-of-18 from the three-point line, didn't look back in the fourth, extending their lead to 25 points before sitting all their starters.

Jason Kapono added 15 points for Toronto, Bargnani had 12 points and nine rebounds and Anthony Parker had 12 points. Jose Calderon, who was bothered by a sore finger after Wednesday's win over the Milwaukee Bucks, finished with seven points and nine assists.

The Thunder (26-46) were lead on the scoresheet by Nick Collison with 21 points and seven rebounds. The Raptors managed to hold Kevin Durant to 18 points on 4-for-13 shooting. Durant had come into the game as the league's fourth-leading scorer with 25.9 points per game.

"I thought Shawn (Marion) did an outstanding job guarding (Durant)," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "To hold him to four field goal attempts he's going to get fouled and he's a great player but Shawn was just kind of there all night."

The Raptors, who are now 3-1 on their current homestand, seemed to build on the momentum they gathered in the victory over the Bucks, when they set season-highs with 12 three-pointers and 35-for-40 shooting from the free-throw line.

After a brief stumble – the Thunder opened an early 5-0 thanks to a couple of errant passes from Bargnani – the Raptors came out firing on all cylinders. They went on a 17-2 run over four minutes to go up 17-7 and build a comfortable 28-18 lead by the end of the first quarter. Bargnani made up for his miscues with six points and Calderon hit two jumpers, including a three-pointer, to rally the Raptors.

The Raptors started the second quarter by going on an 11-2 point run to extend their lead to 39-21, when Joey Graham hit a six-foot hook. The Thunder whittled that down to nine but that was as close as they could get.

Bosh had 10 points in the quarter and led all scorers at the half with 14 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, while Durant paced the Thunder in the half with 10 points on 3-for-8 shooting. The Raptors were shooting 50 per cent at the half.

Toronto wraps up a five-game homestand against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon. The Raptors then go on the road to face the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and New York on Saturday, before returning to the ACC on Sunday to play the Knicks.

Notes: Chris Bosh was tied for eighth in league scoring entering Friday night's game with 22.6 points per game Jose Calderon had a .978 shooting percentage from the free throw line to lead the NBA entering the game. The record from the line is held by Calvin Murphy of Houston, with a .958 shooting percentage in the 1980-81 season.

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